As Christians, we hold dearly onto those awesome and comforting words in John 3:16. This is probably the single most memorized verse in the entire Bible. We find the reference on t-shirts, books, bulletins, and many other places in our day to day lives. I often wonder why God loved the world so much that He would choose to do this. This past weekend I went to a gathering of God's faithful and I was reminded that the reason Jesus was born into the world was so that He could go to the cross to gain our salvation. I was reminded of a thought that has been consuming me for the past few weeks. You see, we all know that God is omniscient and He is not bound by the restrictions of time and space as we are. We understand that God knows what will happen before it happens. God already knows what choices we will face today and the decisions we will make in those choices. God knew before he even created Adam and Eve that they would eat the fruit of the tree. Does this mean that God knew that Jesus would have to die on a cross to gain our salvation before he even created the world and all that is in it? If God is truly omniscient then He must have, yet He chose to create it anyway. How many of us would even choose to have children if we knew that we would have to die for them before we decided to parent them? Surely anyone who has children loves them so much that they would die for them if they faced that decision, but that emotional bond formed after they were born. I can't imagine having faced that decision before deciding to be a parent, and I likewise can't imagine God creating a world and people that He knew He would have to send his one and only Son to die in order to save.
How humbling this thought is. God's love is so strong that He decided to create a world that He would have to die for in order to save from our own free will. How could we ever doubt God's love when we think of it this way?
Monday, December 22, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Coincidence? I Think Not!
How many times have things happened to you and you put it off as mere coincidence? I used to do that all the time until a few years ago when I came to the realization that nothing happens by coincidence. You see, all things that happen are a part of God's plan for mankind. Sometimes many seemingly insignificant and sometimes annoying occurrences can all line up together with a result that could only be a part of God's master plan. My family and I have recently had one of those experiences.
Our long Thanksgiving weekend was probably not completely unlike most people, a lot of food and a lot of driving. We spent some time with my Mother-In-Law, some time with my Brother-In-Law and his wife, and some time with my family in southwestern Pennsylvania. It was a long weekend and there was some forecasting for potential winter weather, especially in higher elevations. Since we had to go through Somerset to get home, we decided to leave early on Sunday so we could get out ahead of the weather. We made plans to get up early, leave Dad's house early and stop for breakfast at Eat'n Park. My son was there at the same time we were and he announced that he had the same breakfast plans on Sunday and soon my aunts, my brother, and all of us were going to meet for breakfast. Wouldn't you know it, this was certainly going to slow us down. When I loaded up the car on Sunday morning, it was already starting to rain and there seemed to be some ice in the falling drops and I was starting to get a little nervous that we would not beat the weather. We went to breakfast and had a great time but still left a little behind the schedule I had planned. Thankfully we were not behind God's schedule. As we were driving home, we hit a lot of slowdowns on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. This was quite annoying and was really starting to get on our nerves since we were in a hurry to get past Somerset before the harsh weather started.
When we finally arrived at the Somerset rest area, we decided to stop in for some Starbucks to relieve some of the stress. We got to the parking lot and it was jammed. We ended up parking on the outer edge and walking into a very crowded rest area with a long line at Starbucks. Well by the time we got through Starbucks and bathroom breaks, it was a long time. As we were leaving the rest stop area, a young boy cut in front of my wife and then slid behind the front door to the building. My wife, always attentive to small children, stopped and asked the boy of he was lost. Through some teary eyes, he told Kristy that he had lost his mommy. Kristy took him by the hand and headed back into the rest area to look for a manager. As soon as she was back in the building the Mom was pretty obvious as she was looking frantic and then looked very relieved when she saw the young boy in tow. The boy left my wife's hand and went straight to his Mom. While they were having that moment together, Kristy just turned and left the building again. On the way out several people in line who had seen what happened took the time to thank Kristy for what she had done. We got back in the car and both realized that we were exactly where God wanted us to be at exactly the moment He wanted us there. It is amazing how all of our traffic problems and extra breakfast time combined to get us there at the right time.
I am certain that there were some stories told somewhere this week about an angel at a Pennsylvania Turnpike rest area who showed up out of nowhere, brought the boy back to his Mom and then disappeared as quickly as she came. That may be so but I can tell you without a doubt that angel drives a pickup truck and listens to rock music. It is interesting how someone who is out of character for an angel suddenly becomes and angel for someone in need when God lines up the circumstances.
It now ever more clear to us that nothing happens as a mere coincidence. The sovereign hand of God is very active in all circumstances in life.
Our long Thanksgiving weekend was probably not completely unlike most people, a lot of food and a lot of driving. We spent some time with my Mother-In-Law, some time with my Brother-In-Law and his wife, and some time with my family in southwestern Pennsylvania. It was a long weekend and there was some forecasting for potential winter weather, especially in higher elevations. Since we had to go through Somerset to get home, we decided to leave early on Sunday so we could get out ahead of the weather. We made plans to get up early, leave Dad's house early and stop for breakfast at Eat'n Park. My son was there at the same time we were and he announced that he had the same breakfast plans on Sunday and soon my aunts, my brother, and all of us were going to meet for breakfast. Wouldn't you know it, this was certainly going to slow us down. When I loaded up the car on Sunday morning, it was already starting to rain and there seemed to be some ice in the falling drops and I was starting to get a little nervous that we would not beat the weather. We went to breakfast and had a great time but still left a little behind the schedule I had planned. Thankfully we were not behind God's schedule. As we were driving home, we hit a lot of slowdowns on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. This was quite annoying and was really starting to get on our nerves since we were in a hurry to get past Somerset before the harsh weather started.
When we finally arrived at the Somerset rest area, we decided to stop in for some Starbucks to relieve some of the stress. We got to the parking lot and it was jammed. We ended up parking on the outer edge and walking into a very crowded rest area with a long line at Starbucks. Well by the time we got through Starbucks and bathroom breaks, it was a long time. As we were leaving the rest stop area, a young boy cut in front of my wife and then slid behind the front door to the building. My wife, always attentive to small children, stopped and asked the boy of he was lost. Through some teary eyes, he told Kristy that he had lost his mommy. Kristy took him by the hand and headed back into the rest area to look for a manager. As soon as she was back in the building the Mom was pretty obvious as she was looking frantic and then looked very relieved when she saw the young boy in tow. The boy left my wife's hand and went straight to his Mom. While they were having that moment together, Kristy just turned and left the building again. On the way out several people in line who had seen what happened took the time to thank Kristy for what she had done. We got back in the car and both realized that we were exactly where God wanted us to be at exactly the moment He wanted us there. It is amazing how all of our traffic problems and extra breakfast time combined to get us there at the right time.
I am certain that there were some stories told somewhere this week about an angel at a Pennsylvania Turnpike rest area who showed up out of nowhere, brought the boy back to his Mom and then disappeared as quickly as she came. That may be so but I can tell you without a doubt that angel drives a pickup truck and listens to rock music. It is interesting how someone who is out of character for an angel suddenly becomes and angel for someone in need when God lines up the circumstances.
It now ever more clear to us that nothing happens as a mere coincidence. The sovereign hand of God is very active in all circumstances in life.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Love, Love, Love
Yesterday was Youth Sunday in the church where I am a member. It was one of the best Youth Sundays that I remember seeing in a very long time. The focus of the service was really on Love. It really reminded me a lot about the unconditional love of Christ. The love Christ had for each and every one of us when he willingly gave his life on the cross in order that we could be forgiven for our sins and made righteous in the site of God. There was a particular song in the service that literally brought tears to my eyes as I was reminded of the fact that I have personally contributed to the sins that Jesus bore on the cross.
I rejoice though that Jesus loved us so much that He would take on the burden of all sin and die in our stead so we can be forgiven. It is this love that makes life worth living. It is this love that brings us through the tough times on earth. It is this love that we must share with others. As the youth were so good at pointing out yesterday, when we experience this kind of love we can't help but want to pass it on, pay it forward I believe was the term used. The idea of paying it forward is a great way to look at the love of Christ. When you think about it, there is an awful lot of wisdom in this. Christ loved us so much that he took the brunt of our sin so we would not have to. Now obviously we can't assume sin debt for anyone but we can help take on the brunt of their pain with them. When our brothers and sisters in God's kingdom are in need, in pain, we are called into action. It is our privilege to be able to pay it forward and reach out with the love of Christ to a world that is hurting and more in need of God's love now than ever before. We are called to humbly server others in the name of our Savior. In this way, they can know His love in the time of their needs.
As we begin our week, let's focus on service to the world. Let's let Christ's light shine through our lives into the darkness of the world. Let's take the time to pay it forward in the name of Jesus Christ.
I rejoice though that Jesus loved us so much that He would take on the burden of all sin and die in our stead so we can be forgiven. It is this love that makes life worth living. It is this love that brings us through the tough times on earth. It is this love that we must share with others. As the youth were so good at pointing out yesterday, when we experience this kind of love we can't help but want to pass it on, pay it forward I believe was the term used. The idea of paying it forward is a great way to look at the love of Christ. When you think about it, there is an awful lot of wisdom in this. Christ loved us so much that he took the brunt of our sin so we would not have to. Now obviously we can't assume sin debt for anyone but we can help take on the brunt of their pain with them. When our brothers and sisters in God's kingdom are in need, in pain, we are called into action. It is our privilege to be able to pay it forward and reach out with the love of Christ to a world that is hurting and more in need of God's love now than ever before. We are called to humbly server others in the name of our Savior. In this way, they can know His love in the time of their needs.
As we begin our week, let's focus on service to the world. Let's let Christ's light shine through our lives into the darkness of the world. Let's take the time to pay it forward in the name of Jesus Christ.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
A Call to Action
I am going to continue to build on my last post here. I know the last post was a long time ago, especially if your work week was anything like mine but try to remember some of the points from last week because you are likely to hear some of them again.
You should remember that it all came down to two basic commandments that we were given by Jesus to live by. Those two are
“The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
Last time we discussed how those two simple instructions related to our wrestling daily with temptation to do things that are not within those guidelines. This timeit is the same two guidelines but the temptation is slightly different. This time we are going to discuss what is commonly called the sin of omission. You see in James 4:17, we find the words, “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.” James reminds us of how many times we see things in life and know what the right thing to do is but just neglect to do it, turn a blind eye and just walk away. James reminds us that when we know what is right to love our neighbors as ourselves and don’t do it, we have violated Jesus’ commandment and have sinned. We make excuses and we convince ourselves that God really doesn’t want us to do that, yet the fact is we know in our heart that we are just making excuses.
Let me share something that happened to me and my family that illustrates this very well. But first like any other Daddy, I have to start by talking about my daughter. My daughter loves dolls made by a company called American Girl. One of the challenges is that these dolls are very expensive so my wife and I must carefully put money away each payday in order to be able to buy dolls and accessories from this company. In one of the ads my wife noted that the company had a store in New York City that we could visit and it had a restaurant, movies and other activities that we could do with Beth. She would absolutely love it. So we started the saving process to do this as a vacation. We knew an extended weekend in New York City would cost us a couple of thousand dollars. I was working in New York City at the time and had gathered enough frequent guest points to cover the cost of the hotel as long as we stayed in New Jersey and took the train the city daily. That would save us about a thousand dollars. Around February of this past year we decided we had enough money to do the trip and let Beth know what we were planning. We decided to do it in March.
Eventually the big day came and we drove to the hotel in Newark and checked in. We decided to make it a long weekend and take in many of the other sites in New York while we were there but we wanted to make sure we did the American Girl trip early in the weekend since that was really the main reason we were there. We also wanted to do it the day after we arrived so we could get up early and have a full day there.
We woke the next morning and worked like a well oiled machine to get our showers and get ready for our trek to the city. I suggested we go to breakfast in Newark first so we would not have to find some place first thing in the city. We used the GPS and found the closest IHOP for breakfast. On the way there we noted that it was not in one of the best neighborhoods in Newark. In fact at one point along the way I got a bit worried about all the people just hanging out on the streets. But my fears quickly subsided when we drove a couple of blocks with no people hanging out before we reached the IHOP which was located on the edge of a commercial section of town. We got out of the car and went in and had a good breakfast. With a good meal in our tummies, we set out on the adventure only to be greeted in the IHOP parking lot by a young woman. She was dressed in old and dirty clothing and told us that she and her children had been the victim of a fire that morning and that they lost everything. She said that her children were hungry and she begged us to help her get something to eat for her children. Now I had been working in the city for a while now and I know a scam when I hear one. People do this stuff all the time in the city just to get your money so they can buy drugs. I told her I was sorry to hear her story but could not help. As I was leaving she said, “God bless you.” OK, yep that was another one of their scam tricks. Make you think they really are blessing you so you feel bad about not helping them get drugs. In the car my wife was my voice of reason. What if she really did need help. What would Jesus do here? But I didn’t have any cash. Ya, that was it, I had no cash. There is a drug store next door and I am sure they have an ATM inside came the answer. My wife pointed out that we put aside a lot of money for this trip and would not likely miss twe he money that would give this woman the cereal and milk to feed her children breakfast. So went to the ATM and withdrew some cash. We returned to IHOP and agreed that if she was still there we would give her some cash to help her feed the children. When we arrived she was still there and my wife rolled down her window and called the woman over. My wife then reached down and picked up a small Psalms and New Testament book that I keep in my car to read from time to time and slipped the money into the pages where it was visible. My wife then handed the woman the Bible with the money visible and told the woman, “Jesus loves you and this is a gift from God, not us.” The woman thanked us and related how her Bible was also destroyed in the fire and how she really needed one to read but was focused more on feeding her children. She took the book and the money and left the parking lot. At this point I was starting to feel really bad about my attitude. You see, I knew what the right thing to do was but I was making excuses to not do it. I was focused on all the reasons why we should not help people rather than why we should help them.
I am sure if we think about our lives, we can all come up with times in our lives when we did not do the things we knew were right. One of the things about the Methodist church that attracted me was the church’s recognition that we are called by Christ to do the things that we know are right. We are called to a life of action by Christ and not a life of passive worship. In the Methodist Church this is very obvious through the work of local church missions, UMCOR, and many other programs that are aimed at finding the need and taking the action to meet the need. I find it rewarding to spend some time in different churches and rad the bulletin boards in the back to find more about the mission people on the boards. It is heartwarming to read the stories of real people making a real difference in the world. Clearly this is what we are called to do, to love our neighbor as ourselves. How can we truly love others while ignoring their needs for help? Would you neglect the needs of your family? Of course not. No more than we would neglect the needs of others in our community. As believers in Christ, we are all children of God, and if we are all children of the same God then we are all brothers and sisters of that same God. When you think of it that way, it kind of kills those excuses we use. How can we neglect the needs of our brothers and sisters? It is certainly a lot harder than neglecting a stranger.
You see our call to action goes beyond the confines of our extended family. We are called to serve the world in the name of Christ so all may know the good news. It is through our service to those in need that we can introduce others to the love of Jesus. Last time we talked about the love of Christ and the unconditional nature of that love.
The effect of the love of Christ in our lives is that it enlightens us, it unbinds us, and it strengthens us. We are enlightened by the Holy Spirit and we begin to think about life in God’s eternal kingdom rather than in terms of this mortal existence. We are unbound from our inequities through the sacrifice of Christ, and we are strengthened by His spirit living in us. It is purely by the grace of God that we are awakened to the greatest reality of our lives - God’s redeeming love, and the realization that we have a spiritual kinship with God and with all God’s created people. When we come to the realization of this spiritual kinship we can no longer ignore the needs of the world but must take action to help.
When we fully realize the depth of God’s love for us then it becomes a genuine response to that love that we want to share it with others. This is a basic quality of God’s grace and love: it creates enthusiasm for passing it on. It is through serving others in their time of need that we find the opportunity to share this love of God with the people we are serving. When people see us selflessly serving them in their time of needs, they can clearly see the love of Christ through our service, through us. We do not, however, serve in order to glorify ourselves or our service itself. We serve in order that others my more clearly see the presence of Christ in the world today. We serve so that others who do not know Christ my find Him in their trials and difficulties. We server because in John 21:17 we see Jesus issuing the command to “feed my sheep.”
Every believer responds uniquely to the love and grace of God through some form of Christian action according to the gifts God has given him or her. We can not expect that everyone will be called to mission service or that everyone would be called to any other specific form of service. We have each been created by God with specific gifts for service in Christ. When we accept Christ’s offer of salvation we receive the Holy Spirit and it is that spirit that can help us to understand our specific gifts. Certainly some will be called to serve in the mission fields but others will be called to serve through church administration or other ways. It is not important how we serve but it is important that we serve. Consider that God did not give us the gifts that He did to meet our own selfish needs but He gave us those gifts to use in service to others. When we refuse to use those gifts as God intended, as James points out, we have sinned.
What qualities and gifts has God given you in your life? How are you using those gifts to serve God and others? Our answers to these questions can give us a clear indication of how well we are responding to God’s call in our lives.
This concept is clearly reflected in the song, “They Will Know We are Christians By Our Love.” Listen to the words of this song and reflect on James' proclamation:
We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand
We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand
And together we'll spread the news that God is in our land
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
They will know we are Christians by our love
We will walk with each other through life. That means coming to the aid of those in need and walking with them hand in hand, picking up the tools and working with them.
As we go through life we will be presented with opportunities to serve others and to live a life that is Christ filled. It is our reaction to these opportunities that will make the difference in living a life that is Spirit led and living a life that is self led. When we put aside our own desires and pride, we have the opportunity to serve a world in need in the name of Christ and it is then that we become the hands of feet of Christ to a world that needs His presence more today than ever before. As you leave here and these opportunities present themselves to you in the days ahead, the same two questions we talked about last time are still the ones to ask. Let’s take a moment to review them again.
1. Will what I am about to do demonstrate my love for God?
2. Will what I am about to do build up or break down others?
You see although we are talking about sins of omission rather than sins of commission, the effects are the same. Either we demonstrate our love for God and others or we do not. In all actions of life we can demonstrate our love for God by doing what he commanded us to do. It is clear for us in John 14:15 when He says, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” Do we love Christ? If so, then we are clearly called to do as He commanded, those two simple commandments:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. And Love your neighbor as yourself.
Like last time, it sounds simple enough but the challenge comes quickly when we try to apply it to our lives. When our own desires, pride, and other factors enter the equation it becomes a lot more complex. Well at least we think it is a lot more complex. I am sure God thinks it is all pretty simple for us. We just have all the layers of life to work through that we have added for ourselves. Layers that God did not intend for us to deal with but we put them there anyhow.
As we conclude, we should try to be aware of opportunities to serve in the days ahead. As we go through live, let’s look around and try to see those circumstances where we know the right thing to do but have not always responded in that way. Let’s look around for opportunities to love Jesus by doing as He commanded.
When faced with the choices of life in the days ahead, what will your answer be? Will it be an answer of excuses as to why you cannot or should not take action in the name of Christ, or will it be an answer of surrender to He who loves you unconditionally? Will you answer, “Here I am Lord, send me?”
Amen
You should remember that it all came down to two basic commandments that we were given by Jesus to live by. Those two are
“The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
Last time we discussed how those two simple instructions related to our wrestling daily with temptation to do things that are not within those guidelines. This timeit is the same two guidelines but the temptation is slightly different. This time we are going to discuss what is commonly called the sin of omission. You see in James 4:17, we find the words, “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.” James reminds us of how many times we see things in life and know what the right thing to do is but just neglect to do it, turn a blind eye and just walk away. James reminds us that when we know what is right to love our neighbors as ourselves and don’t do it, we have violated Jesus’ commandment and have sinned. We make excuses and we convince ourselves that God really doesn’t want us to do that, yet the fact is we know in our heart that we are just making excuses.
Let me share something that happened to me and my family that illustrates this very well. But first like any other Daddy, I have to start by talking about my daughter. My daughter loves dolls made by a company called American Girl. One of the challenges is that these dolls are very expensive so my wife and I must carefully put money away each payday in order to be able to buy dolls and accessories from this company. In one of the ads my wife noted that the company had a store in New York City that we could visit and it had a restaurant, movies and other activities that we could do with Beth. She would absolutely love it. So we started the saving process to do this as a vacation. We knew an extended weekend in New York City would cost us a couple of thousand dollars. I was working in New York City at the time and had gathered enough frequent guest points to cover the cost of the hotel as long as we stayed in New Jersey and took the train the city daily. That would save us about a thousand dollars. Around February of this past year we decided we had enough money to do the trip and let Beth know what we were planning. We decided to do it in March.
Eventually the big day came and we drove to the hotel in Newark and checked in. We decided to make it a long weekend and take in many of the other sites in New York while we were there but we wanted to make sure we did the American Girl trip early in the weekend since that was really the main reason we were there. We also wanted to do it the day after we arrived so we could get up early and have a full day there.
We woke the next morning and worked like a well oiled machine to get our showers and get ready for our trek to the city. I suggested we go to breakfast in Newark first so we would not have to find some place first thing in the city. We used the GPS and found the closest IHOP for breakfast. On the way there we noted that it was not in one of the best neighborhoods in Newark. In fact at one point along the way I got a bit worried about all the people just hanging out on the streets. But my fears quickly subsided when we drove a couple of blocks with no people hanging out before we reached the IHOP which was located on the edge of a commercial section of town. We got out of the car and went in and had a good breakfast. With a good meal in our tummies, we set out on the adventure only to be greeted in the IHOP parking lot by a young woman. She was dressed in old and dirty clothing and told us that she and her children had been the victim of a fire that morning and that they lost everything. She said that her children were hungry and she begged us to help her get something to eat for her children. Now I had been working in the city for a while now and I know a scam when I hear one. People do this stuff all the time in the city just to get your money so they can buy drugs. I told her I was sorry to hear her story but could not help. As I was leaving she said, “God bless you.” OK, yep that was another one of their scam tricks. Make you think they really are blessing you so you feel bad about not helping them get drugs. In the car my wife was my voice of reason. What if she really did need help. What would Jesus do here? But I didn’t have any cash. Ya, that was it, I had no cash. There is a drug store next door and I am sure they have an ATM inside came the answer. My wife pointed out that we put aside a lot of money for this trip and would not likely miss twe he money that would give this woman the cereal and milk to feed her children breakfast. So went to the ATM and withdrew some cash. We returned to IHOP and agreed that if she was still there we would give her some cash to help her feed the children. When we arrived she was still there and my wife rolled down her window and called the woman over. My wife then reached down and picked up a small Psalms and New Testament book that I keep in my car to read from time to time and slipped the money into the pages where it was visible. My wife then handed the woman the Bible with the money visible and told the woman, “Jesus loves you and this is a gift from God, not us.” The woman thanked us and related how her Bible was also destroyed in the fire and how she really needed one to read but was focused more on feeding her children. She took the book and the money and left the parking lot. At this point I was starting to feel really bad about my attitude. You see, I knew what the right thing to do was but I was making excuses to not do it. I was focused on all the reasons why we should not help people rather than why we should help them.
I am sure if we think about our lives, we can all come up with times in our lives when we did not do the things we knew were right. One of the things about the Methodist church that attracted me was the church’s recognition that we are called by Christ to do the things that we know are right. We are called to a life of action by Christ and not a life of passive worship. In the Methodist Church this is very obvious through the work of local church missions, UMCOR, and many other programs that are aimed at finding the need and taking the action to meet the need. I find it rewarding to spend some time in different churches and rad the bulletin boards in the back to find more about the mission people on the boards. It is heartwarming to read the stories of real people making a real difference in the world. Clearly this is what we are called to do, to love our neighbor as ourselves. How can we truly love others while ignoring their needs for help? Would you neglect the needs of your family? Of course not. No more than we would neglect the needs of others in our community. As believers in Christ, we are all children of God, and if we are all children of the same God then we are all brothers and sisters of that same God. When you think of it that way, it kind of kills those excuses we use. How can we neglect the needs of our brothers and sisters? It is certainly a lot harder than neglecting a stranger.
You see our call to action goes beyond the confines of our extended family. We are called to serve the world in the name of Christ so all may know the good news. It is through our service to those in need that we can introduce others to the love of Jesus. Last time we talked about the love of Christ and the unconditional nature of that love.
The effect of the love of Christ in our lives is that it enlightens us, it unbinds us, and it strengthens us. We are enlightened by the Holy Spirit and we begin to think about life in God’s eternal kingdom rather than in terms of this mortal existence. We are unbound from our inequities through the sacrifice of Christ, and we are strengthened by His spirit living in us. It is purely by the grace of God that we are awakened to the greatest reality of our lives - God’s redeeming love, and the realization that we have a spiritual kinship with God and with all God’s created people. When we come to the realization of this spiritual kinship we can no longer ignore the needs of the world but must take action to help.
When we fully realize the depth of God’s love for us then it becomes a genuine response to that love that we want to share it with others. This is a basic quality of God’s grace and love: it creates enthusiasm for passing it on. It is through serving others in their time of need that we find the opportunity to share this love of God with the people we are serving. When people see us selflessly serving them in their time of needs, they can clearly see the love of Christ through our service, through us. We do not, however, serve in order to glorify ourselves or our service itself. We serve in order that others my more clearly see the presence of Christ in the world today. We serve so that others who do not know Christ my find Him in their trials and difficulties. We server because in John 21:17 we see Jesus issuing the command to “feed my sheep.”
Every believer responds uniquely to the love and grace of God through some form of Christian action according to the gifts God has given him or her. We can not expect that everyone will be called to mission service or that everyone would be called to any other specific form of service. We have each been created by God with specific gifts for service in Christ. When we accept Christ’s offer of salvation we receive the Holy Spirit and it is that spirit that can help us to understand our specific gifts. Certainly some will be called to serve in the mission fields but others will be called to serve through church administration or other ways. It is not important how we serve but it is important that we serve. Consider that God did not give us the gifts that He did to meet our own selfish needs but He gave us those gifts to use in service to others. When we refuse to use those gifts as God intended, as James points out, we have sinned.
What qualities and gifts has God given you in your life? How are you using those gifts to serve God and others? Our answers to these questions can give us a clear indication of how well we are responding to God’s call in our lives.
This concept is clearly reflected in the song, “They Will Know We are Christians By Our Love.” Listen to the words of this song and reflect on James' proclamation:
We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand
We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand
And together we'll spread the news that God is in our land
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
They will know we are Christians by our love
We will walk with each other through life. That means coming to the aid of those in need and walking with them hand in hand, picking up the tools and working with them.
As we go through life we will be presented with opportunities to serve others and to live a life that is Christ filled. It is our reaction to these opportunities that will make the difference in living a life that is Spirit led and living a life that is self led. When we put aside our own desires and pride, we have the opportunity to serve a world in need in the name of Christ and it is then that we become the hands of feet of Christ to a world that needs His presence more today than ever before. As you leave here and these opportunities present themselves to you in the days ahead, the same two questions we talked about last time are still the ones to ask. Let’s take a moment to review them again.
1. Will what I am about to do demonstrate my love for God?
2. Will what I am about to do build up or break down others?
You see although we are talking about sins of omission rather than sins of commission, the effects are the same. Either we demonstrate our love for God and others or we do not. In all actions of life we can demonstrate our love for God by doing what he commanded us to do. It is clear for us in John 14:15 when He says, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” Do we love Christ? If so, then we are clearly called to do as He commanded, those two simple commandments:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. And Love your neighbor as yourself.
Like last time, it sounds simple enough but the challenge comes quickly when we try to apply it to our lives. When our own desires, pride, and other factors enter the equation it becomes a lot more complex. Well at least we think it is a lot more complex. I am sure God thinks it is all pretty simple for us. We just have all the layers of life to work through that we have added for ourselves. Layers that God did not intend for us to deal with but we put them there anyhow.
As we conclude, we should try to be aware of opportunities to serve in the days ahead. As we go through live, let’s look around and try to see those circumstances where we know the right thing to do but have not always responded in that way. Let’s look around for opportunities to love Jesus by doing as He commanded.
When faced with the choices of life in the days ahead, what will your answer be? Will it be an answer of excuses as to why you cannot or should not take action in the name of Christ, or will it be an answer of surrender to He who loves you unconditionally? Will you answer, “Here I am Lord, send me?”
Amen
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Walking In The Narrow Way
There is a contemporary Christian song from a group named Casting Crowns called Slow Fade. In this song we are reminded that the descent into a sinful life is not something that just suddenly happens but is more of a gradual process, one sin at a time, one bad choice after another until eventually we just don’t see the light as clearly as we once did. You see, nothing can ever separate us from the love of God, but we can be separated from the light of God in our lives. The good news is that there is only one thing that can separate us from the light of God. The bad news is that that one thing is something we all enjoy to some extent. What am I talking about? I am talking about sin. Sin is the only thing that can separate us from the light of God. The fact is that if sin was miserable or something that caused us pain it would be easy to avoid and not be much of a challenge for us at all. Now I don’t know if any of you have a struggle to avoid sin, but I certainly can speak for myself when I say it is a significant challenge for me. If we believe in Paul’s writings it the Bible, we find it written that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So it is logical to conclude that this is something we all struggle with.
The writer of the song Slow Fade has published a video of his interpretation of Psalm 1 and what the song Slow Fade meant to him. From this video, we learn a great tool to use in trying to avoid sin in our lives. Listen to the words from the New International Version while we explore about them in more detail.
“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.” Think of this statement as a three part way to avoid sin. We start with Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. This statement helps us to remember to avoid walking in the way we know that sin exists. Temptation comes in many forms for each of us and there are certainly some similarities. Some of us may find temptation in material things where we withhold our right tithes in order to buy that new car or that new TV. Maybe it is the things we must do to climb or sometimes claw our way up the corporate ladder. Yet others might find temptation in the form of a TV ad for Victoria’s Secret. Whatever that temptation, the best way to eliminate it is to avoid altogether the circumstances that bring weakness. This might mean just staying away from the car lots or the electronics stores. Avoiding is definitely a sound strategy but we will often find many challenges in doing that. Most people would find it challenging to eliminate TV altogether or eliminate trips to Circuit City or WalMart. This brings us to the second part of the first line of the Psalm. This part of the line says “… or stand in the way of sinners.” It is not always possible to completely avoid walking in the way of temptation in our everyday lives. Often we are forced to walk in the way of those temptations in order to experience life. This second phase of the fall to temptation occurs when we stop and stand in the way of sinners. This is when we see something during our walk and decide to stop and take a closer look. This is when we stop to get a better look at that new car or that new TV. This is when we keep our eyes open during those commercials. Then lastly we reach the final phase of the fall, “… or sit in the seat of mockers.” Suddenly as we start to feel more comfortable with stopping for a closer look, we find ourselves beginning to sit down in order to experience it more fully. This is when we start to talk to the sales person about cost, financing, and availability. Once we enter this third phase if you are anything like me, you might as well have already sinned because there is no return path. Once I enter the sit phase I am as good as done because I always find myself forgetting about God at that point.
Going back to the song Slow Fade, we find that our fall and sometimes surrender to temptation is a slower process where we go through the three phases and at each step our thinking gets a little more clouded and we begin to see things differently. It is a very slow process where our thinking in changed and we fail to see thinks as black and white anymore. We start to see things as shades of gray and lose our focus on the law of the lord.
Listen to these words from Slow Fade:
It's a slow fade when you give yourself away
It's a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray Thoughts invade, choices made, a price will be paid
When you give yourself away
People never crumble in a day
So you see, it is this slow process of the issues we consider black and white becoming more and more gray. We see this now in everyday life. The Bible is clear on many of the issues that are debated today yet we see Christians debating them as a fuzzy area in life and a personal choice rather than a sin against God. We are told clearly in the Bible to love the sinner not the sin yet we can see clear examples in our everyday life of Christians and in some cases even churches continuing to embrace the sin as well as the sinner.
So how do we avoid falling into this trap? Again, the Psalm offers some sound advice.
“But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.”
It is a genuine delight for the law of the Lord that helps us to remain focused on it. In the days of early Judaism, the law was quite complex. When we engage in daily readings and regular study of God’s word, it becomes firmly rooted in our lives. We must treat God’s word as a tree planted by streams of water. A tree planted by streams of water can drink of those waters at will and becomes quite strong and grows in healthy ways. When we keep the Word of God close to us and are able to drink from it at will, we too will become strong and grow in healthy ways. Being firmly rooted in God’s word helps us to focus on those things that are important to God and makes it more difficult for our mind to stray and start thinking in shades of gray rather than clearly in black and white.
God’s laws for the early Jewish people are detailed in Deuteronomy and if you have never taken a good look at them I would encourage you to do that. I find it quite interesting to see all the laws that the people were tasked to conform to. If you read them, you quickly find that to comply with them all is definitely a challenge. Luckily when Jesus spoke to the followers he helped to simplify these for us a little. In Mark 12:28-31 we find these words:
“ One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." "Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.”
That definitely simplifies things for us. Love the lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. If we just take a moment to consider all of our decisions in life to weigh them against two simple questions, we would clearly see God’s guidance in our life. These two simple questions are:
1. Will what I am about to do demonstrate my love for God?
2. Will what I am about to do build up or break down others?
It took me 45 years to understand that it is not about me, it is about loving and honoring God. It is not I who should be glorified but rather God who should be glorified. I have found these two simple questions to be very useful in helping me to avoid actions that are contrary to God’s love. The challenge for me though is actually remembering to evaluate my actions using these two questions.
Does anyone remember the movie that was made by Mel Gibson called the Passion of the Christ. It was a very beautiful and moving movie about the events of Good Friday. Those who went to see walked away changed forever. How could you watch it and not grow in your spirituality and your faith? But how do you put that passion into your everyday life? That is very often easier said than done, but then again Jesus never told us that living life as a Christian would be easy.
In the book, Experiencing the Passion of Christ, John McArthur tells of a father in his church that discovered his little girl had shoplifted a book from the church bookstore. The two of them set up an appointment for the little girl to see the pastor.
The pastor asked the little girl what had happened, and she acknowledged taking the book -- acknowledged knowing that it was wrong -- said that she was sorry -- said that she would never do it again.
Then they talked about an appropriate punishment. Would it be appropriate for the girl to pay the five-dollar cost of the book? She agreed that it would. Would it be appropriate to tack on another fifteen-dollars as a punishment? She agreed that it would -- but the pastor could see the fear in her eyes. She had stolen the book because she didn't have five-dollars. How in the world would she ever get twenty-dollars?
But then, after establishing an appropriate penalty, the pastor pulled out his checkbook and wrote a check for the full amount. The little girl was surprised. The pastor then explained, "I'm going to pay your penalty so you don't have to. Do you know why I'd do that?" The little girl had no idea. He said, "Because I love you, because I care about you.... And please don’t ever forget this: That's how Jesus feels about you too, except even more."
I find this story very moving because it forces me to remember the pain and suffering Jesus endured as a payment for our sins, for my sins. And He did it because he loves us. No other reason, just because He loves us. He loves us unconditionally just as we are. When someone loves you that much, you naturally want to please them with your actions. Look at what we do in the name of love for our family. We all serve our families in many ways. For some this service is taking care of them when they are sick, for others it is feeding them when they are hungry, and for others still it might be giving them an interested ear to listen to them in times of trouble. We serve our family members because we love them and we love them without condition. Just because our children do things we are not particularly happy about does not stop us from loving them. However, for some people, their children find it easier and easier to just not call or visit anymore because they somehow feel the need to live up to their parents’ expectations. Rather than take the chance of being chastised by their parents, they choose to completely turn their back on them and just never visit again. Of course, this causes a lot of pain and suffering for the parents and even the children in the beginning. But as time goes on, the children go into a slow fade where their heart is hardened and in some cases they completely forget about their parents. I have known several people in my lifetime that have told me that they never want to see their parents again. For the parents though they never forget and they spend all the days of their lives waiting and hoping that their children will just come home so they can demonstrate love and forgiveness for them. Sadly some never get this homecoming and die waiting. This is exactly how God feels about us when we sin. Even though we did something that causes God pain, He still loves us and loves us without condition. He stands every day waiting for us to come home and receive his love, compassion, and mercy. He stands waiting to separate us from our sins and bring us into right relationship with Him through the shed blood of Christ. The problem is that we convince ourselves that God could not possibly love us anymore, that we have somehow committed that sin where God could not possibly love us anymore. The fact is God stands waiting for us and we can find all the evidence we need of that statement in the Bible through parables like the Prodigal Son and the Laborers in the Vineyard.
All we need to do to experience God’s love and mercy is to ask Him. Sounds way too simple. Somehow we think we must make restitution for our sins or repay God through good works to cancel out our sins. That kind of thinking is contrary to the teachings of Jesus. If we surround ourselves with God’s Word, we will clearly see that all who call upon the name of Jesus will be saved. It is though our faith and our faith alone that we are saved and made righteous through the name of Jesus. Yep, it sounds way too simple but it is true.
In the words of another song, In Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand. We find Jesus to be a rock, a solid foundation, the rock of the ages, on which to build our faith. Jesus is the immoveable rock that will always be there for us to rely on. As we call upon the name of Jesus our sins are forgiven and we are called to go and sin no more.
As we go through the trials of life and temptation raises its ugly head, and rest assured that it will, it is critical to our spiritual survival that we consider those two simple questions before taking any action:
1. Will what I am about to do demonstrate my love for God?
2. Will what I am about to do build up or break down others?
The writer of the song Slow Fade has published a video of his interpretation of Psalm 1 and what the song Slow Fade meant to him. From this video, we learn a great tool to use in trying to avoid sin in our lives. Listen to the words from the New International Version while we explore about them in more detail.
“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.” Think of this statement as a three part way to avoid sin. We start with Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. This statement helps us to remember to avoid walking in the way we know that sin exists. Temptation comes in many forms for each of us and there are certainly some similarities. Some of us may find temptation in material things where we withhold our right tithes in order to buy that new car or that new TV. Maybe it is the things we must do to climb or sometimes claw our way up the corporate ladder. Yet others might find temptation in the form of a TV ad for Victoria’s Secret. Whatever that temptation, the best way to eliminate it is to avoid altogether the circumstances that bring weakness. This might mean just staying away from the car lots or the electronics stores. Avoiding is definitely a sound strategy but we will often find many challenges in doing that. Most people would find it challenging to eliminate TV altogether or eliminate trips to Circuit City or WalMart. This brings us to the second part of the first line of the Psalm. This part of the line says “… or stand in the way of sinners.” It is not always possible to completely avoid walking in the way of temptation in our everyday lives. Often we are forced to walk in the way of those temptations in order to experience life. This second phase of the fall to temptation occurs when we stop and stand in the way of sinners. This is when we see something during our walk and decide to stop and take a closer look. This is when we stop to get a better look at that new car or that new TV. This is when we keep our eyes open during those commercials. Then lastly we reach the final phase of the fall, “… or sit in the seat of mockers.” Suddenly as we start to feel more comfortable with stopping for a closer look, we find ourselves beginning to sit down in order to experience it more fully. This is when we start to talk to the sales person about cost, financing, and availability. Once we enter this third phase if you are anything like me, you might as well have already sinned because there is no return path. Once I enter the sit phase I am as good as done because I always find myself forgetting about God at that point.
Going back to the song Slow Fade, we find that our fall and sometimes surrender to temptation is a slower process where we go through the three phases and at each step our thinking gets a little more clouded and we begin to see things differently. It is a very slow process where our thinking in changed and we fail to see thinks as black and white anymore. We start to see things as shades of gray and lose our focus on the law of the lord.
Listen to these words from Slow Fade:
It's a slow fade when you give yourself away
It's a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray Thoughts invade, choices made, a price will be paid
When you give yourself away
People never crumble in a day
So you see, it is this slow process of the issues we consider black and white becoming more and more gray. We see this now in everyday life. The Bible is clear on many of the issues that are debated today yet we see Christians debating them as a fuzzy area in life and a personal choice rather than a sin against God. We are told clearly in the Bible to love the sinner not the sin yet we can see clear examples in our everyday life of Christians and in some cases even churches continuing to embrace the sin as well as the sinner.
So how do we avoid falling into this trap? Again, the Psalm offers some sound advice.
“But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.”
It is a genuine delight for the law of the Lord that helps us to remain focused on it. In the days of early Judaism, the law was quite complex. When we engage in daily readings and regular study of God’s word, it becomes firmly rooted in our lives. We must treat God’s word as a tree planted by streams of water. A tree planted by streams of water can drink of those waters at will and becomes quite strong and grows in healthy ways. When we keep the Word of God close to us and are able to drink from it at will, we too will become strong and grow in healthy ways. Being firmly rooted in God’s word helps us to focus on those things that are important to God and makes it more difficult for our mind to stray and start thinking in shades of gray rather than clearly in black and white.
God’s laws for the early Jewish people are detailed in Deuteronomy and if you have never taken a good look at them I would encourage you to do that. I find it quite interesting to see all the laws that the people were tasked to conform to. If you read them, you quickly find that to comply with them all is definitely a challenge. Luckily when Jesus spoke to the followers he helped to simplify these for us a little. In Mark 12:28-31 we find these words:
“ One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." "Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.”
That definitely simplifies things for us. Love the lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. If we just take a moment to consider all of our decisions in life to weigh them against two simple questions, we would clearly see God’s guidance in our life. These two simple questions are:
1. Will what I am about to do demonstrate my love for God?
2. Will what I am about to do build up or break down others?
It took me 45 years to understand that it is not about me, it is about loving and honoring God. It is not I who should be glorified but rather God who should be glorified. I have found these two simple questions to be very useful in helping me to avoid actions that are contrary to God’s love. The challenge for me though is actually remembering to evaluate my actions using these two questions.
Does anyone remember the movie that was made by Mel Gibson called the Passion of the Christ. It was a very beautiful and moving movie about the events of Good Friday. Those who went to see walked away changed forever. How could you watch it and not grow in your spirituality and your faith? But how do you put that passion into your everyday life? That is very often easier said than done, but then again Jesus never told us that living life as a Christian would be easy.
In the book, Experiencing the Passion of Christ, John McArthur tells of a father in his church that discovered his little girl had shoplifted a book from the church bookstore. The two of them set up an appointment for the little girl to see the pastor.
The pastor asked the little girl what had happened, and she acknowledged taking the book -- acknowledged knowing that it was wrong -- said that she was sorry -- said that she would never do it again.
Then they talked about an appropriate punishment. Would it be appropriate for the girl to pay the five-dollar cost of the book? She agreed that it would. Would it be appropriate to tack on another fifteen-dollars as a punishment? She agreed that it would -- but the pastor could see the fear in her eyes. She had stolen the book because she didn't have five-dollars. How in the world would she ever get twenty-dollars?
But then, after establishing an appropriate penalty, the pastor pulled out his checkbook and wrote a check for the full amount. The little girl was surprised. The pastor then explained, "I'm going to pay your penalty so you don't have to. Do you know why I'd do that?" The little girl had no idea. He said, "Because I love you, because I care about you.... And please don’t ever forget this: That's how Jesus feels about you too, except even more."
I find this story very moving because it forces me to remember the pain and suffering Jesus endured as a payment for our sins, for my sins. And He did it because he loves us. No other reason, just because He loves us. He loves us unconditionally just as we are. When someone loves you that much, you naturally want to please them with your actions. Look at what we do in the name of love for our family. We all serve our families in many ways. For some this service is taking care of them when they are sick, for others it is feeding them when they are hungry, and for others still it might be giving them an interested ear to listen to them in times of trouble. We serve our family members because we love them and we love them without condition. Just because our children do things we are not particularly happy about does not stop us from loving them. However, for some people, their children find it easier and easier to just not call or visit anymore because they somehow feel the need to live up to their parents’ expectations. Rather than take the chance of being chastised by their parents, they choose to completely turn their back on them and just never visit again. Of course, this causes a lot of pain and suffering for the parents and even the children in the beginning. But as time goes on, the children go into a slow fade where their heart is hardened and in some cases they completely forget about their parents. I have known several people in my lifetime that have told me that they never want to see their parents again. For the parents though they never forget and they spend all the days of their lives waiting and hoping that their children will just come home so they can demonstrate love and forgiveness for them. Sadly some never get this homecoming and die waiting. This is exactly how God feels about us when we sin. Even though we did something that causes God pain, He still loves us and loves us without condition. He stands every day waiting for us to come home and receive his love, compassion, and mercy. He stands waiting to separate us from our sins and bring us into right relationship with Him through the shed blood of Christ. The problem is that we convince ourselves that God could not possibly love us anymore, that we have somehow committed that sin where God could not possibly love us anymore. The fact is God stands waiting for us and we can find all the evidence we need of that statement in the Bible through parables like the Prodigal Son and the Laborers in the Vineyard.
All we need to do to experience God’s love and mercy is to ask Him. Sounds way too simple. Somehow we think we must make restitution for our sins or repay God through good works to cancel out our sins. That kind of thinking is contrary to the teachings of Jesus. If we surround ourselves with God’s Word, we will clearly see that all who call upon the name of Jesus will be saved. It is though our faith and our faith alone that we are saved and made righteous through the name of Jesus. Yep, it sounds way too simple but it is true.
In the words of another song, In Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand. We find Jesus to be a rock, a solid foundation, the rock of the ages, on which to build our faith. Jesus is the immoveable rock that will always be there for us to rely on. As we call upon the name of Jesus our sins are forgiven and we are called to go and sin no more.
As we go through the trials of life and temptation raises its ugly head, and rest assured that it will, it is critical to our spiritual survival that we consider those two simple questions before taking any action:
1. Will what I am about to do demonstrate my love for God?
2. Will what I am about to do build up or break down others?
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Counterfeit Christianity
About a week ago I had traveled to the Orlando area for some internal corporate training at work. It was just one of those normal quick down and quick back trips that you kind of don't like to do because they are just so busy and so filled with airport time. I went down the night before class, spent the day in a classroom, and then hurried to the airport to get home again. Only this time it was a little different. When class was over, one of the guys in the class and myself got into the elevator to go to the street level and just before the door closes, this guy gets in the elevator. He asks if we were in training and we acknowledged that we were. I noticed what looked like quite a wad of money sticking out of his shirt pocket and I noticed that the money seemed to have an awful lot of zeros on it. Could that be a stack of million dollar bills? Nah, no way this guy would be that casual with that much money. But somehow, I could just not take my eyes off the stack in his shirt pocket. I think he noticed I was staring and he said, "Hey did they tell you that you get a present for putting up with class all day?" And with that he pulls out this stack of money and hands each of us a $1,000,000 bill. Now I am thinking there is no way this is real so I immediately start looking for the flaw in the money. I flip it over on the back and on the top it says, "This is the million dollar question: Are you going to go to Heaven?"
Wow, this is a very interesting way to introduce that kind of a question but it did get me to thinking though about how we, as humankind, seem to want to counterfeit everything we can get our hands on. We do it with money and this was a perfect example of "fake" money. But it got me to thinking about how often you read of the counterfeit of Christianity. How many times do you hear of a new church that is "non-denominational" Christian only to find that their statement of faith is not in line with Christianity. There are a lot of these around and they are easy to get caught up in. I used to work with a guy who was a member of the Mormon Church and he would always tell every one that Mormons were Christians. Are they? Well actually nothing could be further from the truth. A quick review of their core beliefs would tell you that this is not true. They do list faith in Jesus Christ as a core belief but if you look a little closer at their beliefs you will clearly see departure from the most basic of Christian beliefs. So just what are core Christian beliefs? How do we judge for ourselves if a Christian faith is genuine? One of the measurements that I use, is the Apostle's Creed. It has been around for a long time and represents a statement of our faith.
While it is not completely foolproof, the Apostles' Creed definately gives us a good starting point when trying to decide of a Christian faith is authentic or a counterfeit. Jesus said Himself that some would come in His name that would not be authentic. We must be vigilant to identify those false prophets so as not to fall victim of their deceit.
Wow, this is a very interesting way to introduce that kind of a question but it did get me to thinking though about how we, as humankind, seem to want to counterfeit everything we can get our hands on. We do it with money and this was a perfect example of "fake" money. But it got me to thinking about how often you read of the counterfeit of Christianity. How many times do you hear of a new church that is "non-denominational" Christian only to find that their statement of faith is not in line with Christianity. There are a lot of these around and they are easy to get caught up in. I used to work with a guy who was a member of the Mormon Church and he would always tell every one that Mormons were Christians. Are they? Well actually nothing could be further from the truth. A quick review of their core beliefs would tell you that this is not true. They do list faith in Jesus Christ as a core belief but if you look a little closer at their beliefs you will clearly see departure from the most basic of Christian beliefs. So just what are core Christian beliefs? How do we judge for ourselves if a Christian faith is genuine? One of the measurements that I use, is the Apostle's Creed. It has been around for a long time and represents a statement of our faith.
While it is not completely foolproof, the Apostles' Creed definately gives us a good starting point when trying to decide of a Christian faith is authentic or a counterfeit. Jesus said Himself that some would come in His name that would not be authentic. We must be vigilant to identify those false prophets so as not to fall victim of their deceit.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
What Shall We Fear?
What is it that brings fear into your life? What challenges stand in the way of you witnessing for the Risen Christ in today’s complex world? Look around you as you go about your day to day life and you will quickly see that we live in not only a sinful world but also in a sinful society. It doesn’t take much effort at all to just want to mix in with the crowd and live our lives just like everyone else. Besides, how is my neighbor’s lifestyle my business? They are certainly entitled to live their life the way they want, with or without God. Right? We see a much different answer in Romans 6:1b-11. In his letter to the Romans, Paul reminds us that we have died to sin in our baptism in Christ. Since we have died to sin, we cannot live in it any longer. I can’t speak for your experience but I know for me that when I sin and fall short of the glory of God in my life I always seem to come face to face with the ugly side of me and don’t like what I see. The Holy Spirit abiding in me helps me to focus my attention on those times when I have fallen short and help me to see just how ugly those parts of my life really are. You see, when we are baptized in Christ, or saved if you prefer to think of it that way, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in our soul and helps to guide us through life and gives us the gentle nudgings to realize the right decision to make. The very strange part of that is most of us have gotten very good at ignoring the Holy Spirit. In fact, sometimes we get so good at ignoring the holy spirit that we don’t even notice the nudgings anymore.
How about fear? It can be a very powerful emotion and can easily guide us into the wrong path in life. For most of us, when we think of the eternal life we share in Christ, we think of a time very far into the future. In fact we often think that we have a lot of time before that is going to come. It is far too easy to be distracted and scared by the threats of the present when compared to the threats of the future. How often are we faced with choices and we reach the conclusion that we will cross that bridge when we come to it? Have you ever used that statement in making decisions in your life? Oh well, I will cross that bridge when I come to it. When we are faced with an immediate threat we often choose to avoid the immediate in order to not have to deal with it.
For me it was the fear of rejection that caused me to stray. You see, I was born and raised Catholic. What that means is that I was baptized as an infant and there has never been a time in my life outside of the first couple of days that I was not covered by the grace and mercy of God through Jesus. I have never known a time when I could say I was not saved. As I was growing up, I participated in all the usual Catholic ceremonies, First Reconciliation (or First Confession), First Communion, and Confirmation. I was an alter boy and often served a morning mass before going to my classes in a Catholic elementary school. I often spent time talking to the local priest about a call to ordained ministry and felt a strong draw to that ministry. I knew up front that the requirement to remain chaste was going to be a challenge for me because I always had this strong competing desire to get married and raise a family as well. In the Catholic faith, these two are mutually exclusive and you have to make a choice of one over the other. For me though the defining moment was in 4th grade religion class. I can remember it like it was yesterday. The nun teaching the class was Sr. Batiste, and she was talking about our obligation to share the Gospel with all those in our world. She was talking about evangelism. Now I had faith and I was comfortable in that faith as long as I was with other Catholics. The whole idea of sharing that faith with others who were not Catholic or even those who did not know of God was something that scared me. What if I was labeled as a nut case? What if nobody liked me anymore because I was too picky? What if, what if, what if? Because I just could not come to terms with this idea, I decided that my time as a Catholic was over and I stopped participating in religious activities out of the fear that I would be forced into evangelism. Sure I felt the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the days that followed, but the longer I went without going to church, the softer that voice became. In my early military years, I eventually was able to completely mute the voice to the point were I didn’t even notice it anymore. I was certain at that point in my life that God had given up on me and I was destined to burn in Hell forever.
I look back on those early years today and realize how wrong I was. As I aged I started to seek God’s forgiveness for my early years and for turning my back on Him. My wife and I joined the Methodist church mainly because her background was Southern Baptist and she just could not accept some of the Theology of the Catholic Church. Eventually our pastor invited us to a weekend event called the Walk to Emmaus and thinking it was going to be like a Catholic retreat I blindly accepted. Of course, this was all in God’s plan to bring me to a point where I could find him in my life again. I went to the weekend and it was one of the most eye opening experiences of my life. Through the weekend I came to realize that God never abandoned me but I had abandoned God. The guidance of the Holy Spirit never left me but rather I stopped listening.
This is what happens to a lot of people, we just stop listening. Then we find ourselves turning to God in times of trouble asking for a way out and reach the conclusion that He is just not listening to us anymore because we don’t see the answer we expect. Well I am here to tell you today that God is listening and the really great news in all of this is that He loves you too much to just start granting wishes. There was once a movie called Bruce Almighty and whether you like the movie or not, it had an important lesson at the end. You see in the movie God decides to let Bruce run the world for a while and like most of us would do, Bruce started using this to his advantage. He was thinking only of his worldly comfort and selfishness. Before long Bruce’s world was in pitiful shape and Bruce found himself looking for God to get help in fixing his mess. Well of course God returns things to the way they should be and Bruce learns his lesson. All this is of course fiction, but the underlying message is true. If God just granted our wished, the world would be a much worse place today than it is. God loves us so much that he only wants the best for us and when we pray asking to get bailed out; God looks out for us and provides what we need when we need it. That means that no matter what, God always looks out for the best interest of his people as viewed by His Kingdom. Now this is very good news for us.
This Kingdom view is exactly what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 10:24-39:
"Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven."
What Jesus is talking about here is our eternal life in God’s Kingdom. He helps us to put our fears in check by remembering that this earthly existence is nothing compared to our eternal life with Him in Heaven. He reminds us that we should never fear making the right choice even it it means putting our lives at risk. Rather we should fear taking the safe path and living a life that is pleasing to the forces of evil that will eventually destroy not only our earthly body but also our eternal soul as well. The choice is never easy because of our sinful nature but when we keep things in the proper context, we find help from the Holy Spirit in times of trouble.
I am sure none of you have ever had this problem, but I have such a hard time putting my finger on a heavenly existence. I live in a world that is scientific and established truth by providing evidence and proof that things are real. With that kind of logic, it is very challenging to hold onto this promise of eternal life in some reality that we cannot touch, we cannot see and we cannot experience. I have long prayed to God asking him to reveal to me this other reality that I cannot see or feel. I wanted to share with you this morning just how God answered this prayer for me. I will try to get through this with dry eyes but there are no promises because when God touches your life you become very humbled.
All of my life my mother was considered by most to be insane. When my brother was born in the early 60’s she had a nervous breakdown and was put into a state mental institution where they treated her illness with shock treatments until she would behave properly. The problem was that she was quite determined to stay on the far side of reality and they eventually killed a lot of brain cells with the shock treatments. In her later life she required someone to constantly look after her because she could not separate reality from fiction. She would often tell us how she appreciated the trip we took her on to places that we had never visited. We all just learned to agree with her because if you argued, you were looking for a good fight.
She became convinced that smoking and heath had absolutely no link together and was a heavy smoker most of her life. She developed COPD and still refused to quit smoking since that had nothing to do with her illness. All she needed was her inhaler and she would be fine. Eventually she was dependent on oxygen full time and the fire hazard was too great with open oxygen in the house and she finally understood that she had to quit. For about the last year she was in and out of hospitals a lot because of her inability to breath. When I went to visit her last Christmas I could see that she had to struggle for every breath and I knew it would not be long. In February she was put in the hospital and the doctors said she would not likely live. I rushed to Pa. to say my good bye and when I arrived in the critical care unit she was sitting in a chair and started talking to me. Low and behold, my prayers were answered and it was a miracle. The problem with this though was that she still had the same breathing problems and was not going to be able to keep this up much longer. She also developed a very rare blood disease in which her body was destroying the red blood cells too quickly and her red blood cell count would go low and she would need a blood transfusion periodically to raise the red blood cell count. In April she was taken into the hospital again and needed a blood transfusion to continue to live. She refused the blood transfusion and the hospital staff said they could not do it without her consent. We were all upset about the idea the decision and didn’t want to let her just die. After all she was insane and how could she make that kind of a decision. I called her on the phone to talk to her about it and the very strange thing about this phone call is that she was the most sane that I have ever known her to be. We talked for about 5 minutes and everything she talked of was reality and there was no fantasy in any of it. Then she hit me with the words that would change my life forever. She said that Jesus told her that He would take care of everything and that everything would be OK. At that time I could feel the spirit in my own being start to move. At that point I realized that she really had talked to Jesus and He really was going to take care of things. After we hung up all I could do was pray and thank God for his assurance and to acknowledge that I placed it all in His hands as he knew best. My brother called me shortly afterward to say Mom signed the consent form for the transfusion. Within a few weeks she died anyway from the complications of COPS. The interesting part of all this is that Jesus was true to his word the entire time. As my brother, my sister, and I made the preparations and arrangements for her funeral there was no bickering, no fighting over Mom’s stuff. In fact we gave most of it to the Salvation Army to help others who were less fortunate. All we really kept were a few keepsakes for memories. We all faced the viewing and the funeral mass as a celebration of Mom’s passing into the arms of her savior rather than our losing her and many have commented that it was the happiest funeral they have ever been to.
What I have learned is that there is nothing in life that we should fear including death. Death is merely a door that we must eventually pass through to get to the loving arms of our Savior. We must learn to trust in God to give us the very best, even when that very best means passing through to our eternal life.
In Matthew's Gospel above, Jesus tells us that we should not be afraid of losing our mortal body but we should be afraid of losing our mortal body and our soul. This is very hard to do because we tend to live in the here and now. We have no experiential reference point for the eternal and without that it is hard to even think about the eternal let alone release our fears that are based on threats to us in the here and now.
When I was living outside of God and running I was afraid of death because I was certain that God had abandoned me. I was certain that my prospects for eternity were pretty bleak. Now I do not fear death because I have a better understanding of my forgiveness through the shed blood of Jesus. When we learn to trust God for our forgiveness and acceptance into heaven, our fear of death seems to just disappear.
As you go about your day, take some time to think about your life and what you fear. What is the source of your fears? Do you need to learn to better trust God or do you just need to let go of your fears and give them to God to handle?
How about fear? It can be a very powerful emotion and can easily guide us into the wrong path in life. For most of us, when we think of the eternal life we share in Christ, we think of a time very far into the future. In fact we often think that we have a lot of time before that is going to come. It is far too easy to be distracted and scared by the threats of the present when compared to the threats of the future. How often are we faced with choices and we reach the conclusion that we will cross that bridge when we come to it? Have you ever used that statement in making decisions in your life? Oh well, I will cross that bridge when I come to it. When we are faced with an immediate threat we often choose to avoid the immediate in order to not have to deal with it.
For me it was the fear of rejection that caused me to stray. You see, I was born and raised Catholic. What that means is that I was baptized as an infant and there has never been a time in my life outside of the first couple of days that I was not covered by the grace and mercy of God through Jesus. I have never known a time when I could say I was not saved. As I was growing up, I participated in all the usual Catholic ceremonies, First Reconciliation (or First Confession), First Communion, and Confirmation. I was an alter boy and often served a morning mass before going to my classes in a Catholic elementary school. I often spent time talking to the local priest about a call to ordained ministry and felt a strong draw to that ministry. I knew up front that the requirement to remain chaste was going to be a challenge for me because I always had this strong competing desire to get married and raise a family as well. In the Catholic faith, these two are mutually exclusive and you have to make a choice of one over the other. For me though the defining moment was in 4th grade religion class. I can remember it like it was yesterday. The nun teaching the class was Sr. Batiste, and she was talking about our obligation to share the Gospel with all those in our world. She was talking about evangelism. Now I had faith and I was comfortable in that faith as long as I was with other Catholics. The whole idea of sharing that faith with others who were not Catholic or even those who did not know of God was something that scared me. What if I was labeled as a nut case? What if nobody liked me anymore because I was too picky? What if, what if, what if? Because I just could not come to terms with this idea, I decided that my time as a Catholic was over and I stopped participating in religious activities out of the fear that I would be forced into evangelism. Sure I felt the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the days that followed, but the longer I went without going to church, the softer that voice became. In my early military years, I eventually was able to completely mute the voice to the point were I didn’t even notice it anymore. I was certain at that point in my life that God had given up on me and I was destined to burn in Hell forever.
I look back on those early years today and realize how wrong I was. As I aged I started to seek God’s forgiveness for my early years and for turning my back on Him. My wife and I joined the Methodist church mainly because her background was Southern Baptist and she just could not accept some of the Theology of the Catholic Church. Eventually our pastor invited us to a weekend event called the Walk to Emmaus and thinking it was going to be like a Catholic retreat I blindly accepted. Of course, this was all in God’s plan to bring me to a point where I could find him in my life again. I went to the weekend and it was one of the most eye opening experiences of my life. Through the weekend I came to realize that God never abandoned me but I had abandoned God. The guidance of the Holy Spirit never left me but rather I stopped listening.
This is what happens to a lot of people, we just stop listening. Then we find ourselves turning to God in times of trouble asking for a way out and reach the conclusion that He is just not listening to us anymore because we don’t see the answer we expect. Well I am here to tell you today that God is listening and the really great news in all of this is that He loves you too much to just start granting wishes. There was once a movie called Bruce Almighty and whether you like the movie or not, it had an important lesson at the end. You see in the movie God decides to let Bruce run the world for a while and like most of us would do, Bruce started using this to his advantage. He was thinking only of his worldly comfort and selfishness. Before long Bruce’s world was in pitiful shape and Bruce found himself looking for God to get help in fixing his mess. Well of course God returns things to the way they should be and Bruce learns his lesson. All this is of course fiction, but the underlying message is true. If God just granted our wished, the world would be a much worse place today than it is. God loves us so much that he only wants the best for us and when we pray asking to get bailed out; God looks out for us and provides what we need when we need it. That means that no matter what, God always looks out for the best interest of his people as viewed by His Kingdom. Now this is very good news for us.
This Kingdom view is exactly what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 10:24-39:
"Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven."
What Jesus is talking about here is our eternal life in God’s Kingdom. He helps us to put our fears in check by remembering that this earthly existence is nothing compared to our eternal life with Him in Heaven. He reminds us that we should never fear making the right choice even it it means putting our lives at risk. Rather we should fear taking the safe path and living a life that is pleasing to the forces of evil that will eventually destroy not only our earthly body but also our eternal soul as well. The choice is never easy because of our sinful nature but when we keep things in the proper context, we find help from the Holy Spirit in times of trouble.
I am sure none of you have ever had this problem, but I have such a hard time putting my finger on a heavenly existence. I live in a world that is scientific and established truth by providing evidence and proof that things are real. With that kind of logic, it is very challenging to hold onto this promise of eternal life in some reality that we cannot touch, we cannot see and we cannot experience. I have long prayed to God asking him to reveal to me this other reality that I cannot see or feel. I wanted to share with you this morning just how God answered this prayer for me. I will try to get through this with dry eyes but there are no promises because when God touches your life you become very humbled.
All of my life my mother was considered by most to be insane. When my brother was born in the early 60’s she had a nervous breakdown and was put into a state mental institution where they treated her illness with shock treatments until she would behave properly. The problem was that she was quite determined to stay on the far side of reality and they eventually killed a lot of brain cells with the shock treatments. In her later life she required someone to constantly look after her because she could not separate reality from fiction. She would often tell us how she appreciated the trip we took her on to places that we had never visited. We all just learned to agree with her because if you argued, you were looking for a good fight.
She became convinced that smoking and heath had absolutely no link together and was a heavy smoker most of her life. She developed COPD and still refused to quit smoking since that had nothing to do with her illness. All she needed was her inhaler and she would be fine. Eventually she was dependent on oxygen full time and the fire hazard was too great with open oxygen in the house and she finally understood that she had to quit. For about the last year she was in and out of hospitals a lot because of her inability to breath. When I went to visit her last Christmas I could see that she had to struggle for every breath and I knew it would not be long. In February she was put in the hospital and the doctors said she would not likely live. I rushed to Pa. to say my good bye and when I arrived in the critical care unit she was sitting in a chair and started talking to me. Low and behold, my prayers were answered and it was a miracle. The problem with this though was that she still had the same breathing problems and was not going to be able to keep this up much longer. She also developed a very rare blood disease in which her body was destroying the red blood cells too quickly and her red blood cell count would go low and she would need a blood transfusion periodically to raise the red blood cell count. In April she was taken into the hospital again and needed a blood transfusion to continue to live. She refused the blood transfusion and the hospital staff said they could not do it without her consent. We were all upset about the idea the decision and didn’t want to let her just die. After all she was insane and how could she make that kind of a decision. I called her on the phone to talk to her about it and the very strange thing about this phone call is that she was the most sane that I have ever known her to be. We talked for about 5 minutes and everything she talked of was reality and there was no fantasy in any of it. Then she hit me with the words that would change my life forever. She said that Jesus told her that He would take care of everything and that everything would be OK. At that time I could feel the spirit in my own being start to move. At that point I realized that she really had talked to Jesus and He really was going to take care of things. After we hung up all I could do was pray and thank God for his assurance and to acknowledge that I placed it all in His hands as he knew best. My brother called me shortly afterward to say Mom signed the consent form for the transfusion. Within a few weeks she died anyway from the complications of COPS. The interesting part of all this is that Jesus was true to his word the entire time. As my brother, my sister, and I made the preparations and arrangements for her funeral there was no bickering, no fighting over Mom’s stuff. In fact we gave most of it to the Salvation Army to help others who were less fortunate. All we really kept were a few keepsakes for memories. We all faced the viewing and the funeral mass as a celebration of Mom’s passing into the arms of her savior rather than our losing her and many have commented that it was the happiest funeral they have ever been to.
What I have learned is that there is nothing in life that we should fear including death. Death is merely a door that we must eventually pass through to get to the loving arms of our Savior. We must learn to trust in God to give us the very best, even when that very best means passing through to our eternal life.
In Matthew's Gospel above, Jesus tells us that we should not be afraid of losing our mortal body but we should be afraid of losing our mortal body and our soul. This is very hard to do because we tend to live in the here and now. We have no experiential reference point for the eternal and without that it is hard to even think about the eternal let alone release our fears that are based on threats to us in the here and now.
When I was living outside of God and running I was afraid of death because I was certain that God had abandoned me. I was certain that my prospects for eternity were pretty bleak. Now I do not fear death because I have a better understanding of my forgiveness through the shed blood of Jesus. When we learn to trust God for our forgiveness and acceptance into heaven, our fear of death seems to just disappear.
As you go about your day, take some time to think about your life and what you fear. What is the source of your fears? Do you need to learn to better trust God or do you just need to let go of your fears and give them to God to handle?
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